Right: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins continues to play strong two-way hockey at centre. Of all the top Oilers attackers, he’s the one who most understands how to play defence, and he plays a challenging position on defence to boot. RNH might not always check his man successfully, but he knows how to locate who he should be checking and makes that effort. He’s not wandering around in the Red Light Zone, failing to check anyone or failing to block any passing lanes.

RNH is at +1.9 scoring chances per 15 minutes of even strength play, down quite a bit from +2.5 last season, but that’s still a good number for a centre who faces tough competition.

Wrong: Sam Gagner needs to move to wing, the sooner, the better, at least until he’s up to speed. He’s going through one of the worst stretches of his career, especially where it matters most, in the defensive zone.

When Gagner was showing a bit of promise as a two-way centre in 2011-12 (though against softer competition), he was at an OK-ish +1.4 scoring chances per 15.

Last year when his game regressed and he was inconsistent and his line leaked goals and scoring chances, he was at just +0.9 per 15, a weak number for a centre facing softer competition.

This year, Gagner is at -0.8 per 15. That is getting down towards Eric Belanger country.

Gagner has sometimes faced tougher competition this year, as coach Dallas Eakins has teamed him with Taylor Hall. Teams will often put out their best players to thwart Hall, but that means Gagner is up against a player like Jonathan Toews.

Not good.

After all these years, Gagner still appears transfixed on the puck in his own zone, as opposed to keeping his head on a swivel and rushing to cover the open man. The defensive reads are much easier on the wing, so wing is where Gagner belongs.

Gagner needs to work out the kinks in his game on the wing, and until he gets rolling do so in a spot well outside the Top 6.

Right: Mark Arcobello coughed up the puck a few times vs. Chicago, but generally the 25-year-old rookie has been OK defensively at centre. In fact, his +1.5 scoring chances per 15 is about same number that Gagner posted in his best year at centre in 2011-12.

If Arcobello can keep playing sound-ish defence, keep winning more than half his faceoffs, and keep chipping in a point or two every few games, he can help the Oilers win from the centre position. The Oilers could run out RNH and Boyd Gordon vs tough competition, Arcobello and Anton Lander at 4C vs. softer competition, and not get eaten alive, maybe even doing a little munching themselves. Of course, that would mean calling up Lander from Oklahoma City and ending the experiment with Will Acton for now.

Wrong: Against Chicago, Anton Belov and Philip Larsen had about as bad a game as you can imagine for a d-pairing. The good news is Belov has played better this year, as has Larsen, and that Justin Schultz will soon return. At this point, it’s better that Schultz replace Larsen, not Taylor Fedun, who has three good games out of his four NHL games. Or the Oilers can call up a veteran like Denis Grebeshkov or Corey Potter.

But, in the short term, the Oilers can roll with a top pairing of Andrew Ference and Jeff Petry, a second pairing of Schultz and Belov, and a third pairing of Fedun and Nick Schultz. This isn’t one of the great d-units of all-time, but it’s superior to the weak group iced by the Oilers from 2009-13. It’s good enough to compete, but you can’t have a pairing get swamped like Belov and Larsen did against Chicago. That pairing is broke, so fix it.

Right: Ilya Bryzgalov was the right signing for this team. The Oilers have forever needed another goalie who can actually compete with Devan Dubnyk for the starter’s job. Oilers GM Craig MacTavish did a good job of bringing in d-men who can compete for jobs, and that’s put the Oilers in a much better position on defence, one that allowed them to move Ladi Smid, who was shaping up as a bottom-pairing d-man on this team, and one who would be a bit expensive in that role. The acquisition of a goalie like Bryzgalov should have happened years ago, rather than the team bringing in too old Nikolai Khabibulin or career back up Jason LaBarbera, or going with the underwhelming Jeff Drouin-DesLauriers.

To win, the Oilers need fierce competition at all positions, including goalie.

Wrong: While the the centres, save for Gagner and Acton, and the d-men have generally performed well under Eakins, the same can’t be said of the team’s top wingers.

Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall have seemed a bit out of sorts, especially in their own end. They are not playing anywhere close to peak two-way hockey.

Eakins is asking more of them on defence, but they’re failing to rise to the occasion, and making mistakes that lead to more scoring chances against.

For example, last year Eberle was +4.0 scoring chances per 15 minutes, this year he is just +2.5, a good number for a winger against tough comp, but not the level Eberle can attain.

Last year Hall was an excellent +3.7. This year he’s at an OK-ish +1.9 (though that number was negatively impacted by his weak stint at centre).

This team is only as good as its top players, so perhaps it’s time to re-unite RNH, Hall and Eberle again and see if they can dominate as much as they did for stretches last season.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.